Quality circle - Concept and the Indian story

Quality Circle is a modern quality management concept designed to bring together all level of workforce in an organisation for setting standards of excellence and achieving better results. Developed in post war Japan, quality circles was largely responsible for rebuilding and stabilizing the shattered economy of the country. This concept has since gained wide acceptance. Quality circles are being used all over the world because of the benefits that accrue to the firm. Employees meet regularly to identify, analyze and solve the problems that arise during the course of their work in the organization. Quality Circle includes different personalities of people in an improvement activity and helps in positively changing the behavior of the people. Quality circle encourages each individual to develop to the best of their ability. It creates a feeling of belongingness and camaraderie. It also satisfies self esteem and ego needs of employees with recognition and reward As a result relevance of quality circle is very much today for augmenting organizations capabilities to sustain and grow in a competitive market. This paper discusses the concept of Quality Circle and its application in the Indian context.